1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to on-line transactions, and more particularly to on-line transactions by which a purchaser at a non-secure terminal is able to purchase goods or services, such as airline tickets, and receive coupon data for the selected goods or services which can be printed at the non-secure terminal.
2. Description of Related Art
The number of users connected to public networks is expanding rapidly. Many systems have arisen which provide users connected to such networks a wide variety of services. For instance, users are able to select goods for purchase, pay for the goods using a credit card or other payment service, using automated systems on the network, and later, the goods or services are delivered to their homes.
One limitation of these on-line systems has been the inability to allow purchasers at non-secure terminals to print coupons which they have purchased on-line. Thus, airline reservation systems which are available on-line allow the user to make a confirmed reservation. However, the user must go through a travel agent or other authorized, secure service to receive the actual ticket.
The generation of secure documents at remote terminals has been addressed in a variety of contexts, including postage meter systems and the like. These prior art systems allow purchasers to print a coupon for postage or other goods or services at their homes or offices. However, special secure equipment at the purchaser's site is required.
Prior art concerning the printing of secure documents using secure terminals is described in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,890,599 by Simjian; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,246 by Edelmann, et al., both of which rely on a secure metering device.
In addition, there is a great deal of work concerning secure banking transactions and the like that can be executed on-line. See for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,990,558 by Ehrat. Further, credit card and check verification processes using encryption techniques have been described. See for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,655 by Musyck, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,686,527 by Goldman. Encryption technology which is available for providing security for on-line transactions is described in a number of references. See for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,214,700 by Pinkas, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,317,637 by Pichlmaier, et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,657 by Sakurai.
Notwithstanding substantial work in the field of on-line services and secure transactions, no prior art system has made available to a purchaser the ability to print coupons for purchased goods or services at a non-secure terminal, where the coupons have been purchased through an on-line transaction.